arks, that at that time the English
never were without some superstitious prophecy or other, by which they
accounted for every event.

* Hist. Croyl. Cont. p. 562.

** Stowe, p. 430. Hist. Croyl. Cont. p. 562.

*** Hall, fol. 239. Holingshed, p. 703. Grafton, p. 741.
Polyd. Virg. p. 537. Sir Thomas More in Kennet, p. 497.

All the glories of Edward's reign terminated with the civil wars, where
his laurels, too, were extremely sullied with blood, violence, and
cruelty. His spirit seems afterwards to have been sunk in indolence and
pleasure, or his measures were frustrated by imprudence and the want of
foresight. There was no object on which he was more intent than to have
all his daughters settled by splendid marriages, though most of these
princesses were yet in their infancy, and though the completion of his
views, it was obvious, must depend on numberless accidents, which were
impossible to be foreseen or prevented. His eldest daughter, Elizabeth,
was contracted to the dauphin; his second, Cicely, to the eldest son of
James III., king of Scotland; his third, Anne, to Philip, only son of
Maximilian and the duchess of Burgundy; his fourth, Catharine, to John,
son and heir to Ferdinand, king of Arragon, and Isabella, queen of
Castile.[*] None of these projected marriages took place; and the king
himself saw in his lifetime the rupture of the first, that with the
dauphin, for which he had always discovered a peculiar fondness. Lewis,
who paid no regard to treaties or engagements, found his advantage
in contracting the dauphin to the princess Margaret, daughter of
Maximilian, and the king, notwithstanding his indolence, prepared to
revenge the indignity.

* Rymer, vol. xi. p. 110.

{1482.} The French monarch, eminent for prudence as well as perfidy,
endeavored to guard against the blow; and by a proper distribution of
presents in the court of Scotland, he incited James to make war upon
England. This prince, who lived on bad terms with his own nobility, and
whose force was very unequal to the enterprise, levied an army; but
when he was ready to enter England, the barons, conspiring against
his favorites, put them to death without trial; and the army presently
disbanded. The duke of Glocester, attended by the duke of Albany,
James's brother, who had been banished his country, entered Scotland at
the head of an army, took Berwick, and obliged the Scots to accept of
a peace, by which they resign